Bludgeoned Rose: Broken Dreams
by Charmed-Soul
Summary: Kuja's back! But is he bad or good? Also new faces will be appering soon! Mikoto's gone, but someone new is arriving. Everyone holds their own secrets and dark pasts away from the rest. Twists and Turns you'll never see coming!!!! Please Review!!!!!
1. Prolouge

Bludgeoned Rose: Broken Dreams. Prologue.  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own the characters of Final Fantasy 9 so don't ask! Kidding (lol) Well I own my story line but the creators of Final Fantasy own most of the characters except for the ones I've created! I still love ya! The creators of Final Fantasy own the play in this prologue!!!!  
  
Authors note: I played the game Final Fantasy 9 and immediately fell in love with the characters in it!!! Now I've work really hard on this story so PLEASE read and review this story! NO FLAMES PLEASE! Only constructive criticism, I'll love you forever!!!!!  
  
  
  
Years pass ever since Queen Garnet and her friends destroyed the evil threatening to engulf their world. Seven years to be exact. The former Princess mourned the lost of Zidane Tribal for almost a year, then realizing that it was time to move on with her life. The adventurous group stayed together for a while, and then soon fell apart. Vivi Orunitia met and married a young woman black mage who looks just like him, but her clothes are pink and white instead of blue and white.  
  
The woman's name was- Pearl. Soon after they were married they had one son, who they graciously named Vivi jr. after his father. Vivi jr. was followed by another child, a daughter, (Minalla.) Then a son, (Alec.) Then by a pair of twins, one boy, the other a girl, (Scott, and Michele.) The family lives happily in a house near the outskirts of Alexandria.  
  
Amarant Coral frequented his own adventures, desperately trying to show just how better he was then the rest of his old group. He explores oveilvert numerous times always returning empty handed but saying that he senses a growing power there. Lani the bounty hunter, and his friend, follows him around, helping with the adventures.  
  
Freya Cresent lives in Alexandria with Sir Fratley still. The two are deeply in love and put their forgotten past behind them. Sir Fratley still doesn't remember anything from his past after he was attacked and rescued by prince puck. The two help with the restoration of Burmecia and of Lindblum day after day, determined to make life easier for the inhabitants of those cities.  
  
Eiko Carol lives in Lindblum with her the Regent Cid and his wife, Hilda. She affectionately refers to them as mother, and father, after having gone through half her life without anyone but her moogles. Mog comes back in moogles form every so often and she still protects her. Eiko and the queen remain best of friends, still not sure of they might be sisters or not.  
  
Quina Quen moved back to Qu's marsh shortly after the battle with Necron had finished and showed off his (or her,) new blue magic powers to Qu. Quina still goes on her own adventures but now she brings Qu with her and they learn new magic together. Quina's favorite food still remains as the frogs in Qu's Marshes.  
  
Adelbert Steiner, the captain of the knights of Pluto, carried on with his relationship with General Beatrix. After a few years steiner finally proposed marriage. The two were wed in the town's cathedral. After the wedding, the two wore smiles on their faces almost all the time.  
  
But the group's lives were about to change.  
  
~*~  
  
During the latter part of the sixth year tantulas began to make preparations for another showing of- "I want To Be Your Canary" in Alexandria again. They preformed on New Years Eve Day, Garnet surrounded by her friends in the royal viewing seats. Baku played Kind Leo again as always and Blank as Blank. Ruby as Cornelia. And Marcus as Marcus. Or so they thought. The play carried on as always-  
  
Baku is once again garbed in his King Leo uniform; he walks on stage and bows to the clapping]  
  
Baku  
  
"Ladies and Gentlemen!"  
  
"Tonight's performance is a story that takes place long, long ago."  
  
"Our heroine, Princess Cornelia, is torn from her lover, Marcus."  
  
"She attempts to flee the castle, only to be captured by her father, King Leo."  
  
"Tonight's story begins when Marcus and Cornelia decide to run away together."  
  
"And now, Your Royal Majesty, Queen Garnet, Lord Steiner, Lady Beatrix..."  
  
"...noble ladies and lords, and our rooftop viewers, Tantalus proudly presents 'I Want to Be Your Canary'!"  
  
[Screen changes to a section of the stage. Princess Cornelia (Ruby) is running]  
  
Cornelia  
  
"Marcus?"  
  
[A man garbed in a black cloak, complete with black hood, walks on stage. Cornelia approaches him]  
  
Cornelia  
  
"Sweet Marcus, I fear I love thee more than I should!"  
  
Marcus  
  
"Princess... Wilt thou be happy, married to a lowly peasant such as I?"  
  
Cornelia  
  
"Prithee, call me 'princess' no more!"  
  
"Marcus, wilt thou truly cherish me, the king's only daughter?"  
  
"Or is such a desire too dear to wish for!?"  
  
"After our nuptials, shall I become no more than a puppet?"  
  
"A mindless puppet, never to laugh, never to cry?"  
  
"I wish to live my life under the sky. At times I shall laugh, at other times cry."  
  
"For no life is more insincere than that lived as a masquerade."  
  
Marcus  
  
"So much consideration thou hast given it! But worry not!"  
  
[They embrace]  
  
"Cast away thy trappings of royalty, and I shall swaddle thou in a gown of pure love!"  
  
"Never again will I part from thee!"  
  
"Pray, my love, make me thy canary to keep forever in the cage of thy bosom!"  
  
"Let us embark on the first ship tomorrow, before dawn can tell of our elopement!"  
  
Cornelia  
  
"All my fortunes at thy foot, I lay, and I shall follow thee throughout the world!"  
  
Marcus  
  
"No cloud, no squall shall hinder us!"  
  
[Marcus turns around and walks off screen]  
  
Cornelia  
  
"O, love is the sweetest joy and the wildest woe."  
  
"All I wish is to be by my sweet Marcus's side."  
  
[Screen shows Blank on the side of the stage, eavesdropping]  
  
Blank  
  
"Fie! It shall be war again unless this marriage is stopped."  
  
"Ne'er will I let their plan come to fruition."  
  
[He walks on stage]  
  
"Good day to ye, Highness."  
  
Cornelia  
  
"Good day..."  
  
Blank  
  
"Wist thee of Marcus?"  
  
Cornelia  
  
"Marcus!? What news dost thou bring?"  
  
Blank  
  
"This!"  
  
[He punches her in the stomach]  
  
Cornelia  
  
"Ugh!"  
  
[She falls into his arms; screen fades to black]  
  
[Screen fades back in on Marcus, standing alone. It's dawn]  
  
Marcus  
  
"The time for our departure is long past."  
  
"Where is Cornelia?"  
  
[Cinna walks on screen]  
  
Cinna  
  
"Marcus, the ship soon embarks!"  
  
"Board ye the boat alone, and peace could come to both kingdoms, as Blank so said."  
  
"Speak, Marcus!"  
  
"She told me that she could not live without me."  
  
[A section of the sky lights up; several pictures of birds flying appear]  
  
"So, the sun is our enemy, too. The eastern sky grows bright."  
  
"Will we not spread our wings, as yonder birds in joyous flight?"  
  
Cinna  
  
"Hark, Marcus! They cannot wait any longer!"  
  
"The ship departs!"  
  
[Cinna runs off screen]  
  
Marcus  
  
"Could she have betrayed me?"  
  
"Nay, ne'er would my love speak false."  
  
"I must have faith!"  
  
"She shall appear if I only believe!"  
  
"As the sun lends me no ear, I pray instead to the twin moons!"  
  
"I beseech thee, wondrous moonlight, grant me my only wish!"  
  
[Marcus throws off his robe and spins around, facing Dagger at her seat, to reveal that it's...ZIDANE!]  
  
Zidane  
  
"Bring my beloved Dagger to me!"  
  
~*~  
  
Dagger looks on in shock at the love of her life standing on the stage for a few seconds', thoughts racing through her brain as she turned and ran towards the door behind her. The white dress she wore trailed along behind her. People in the crowd cheered, everyone knowing who zidane was.  
  
Dagger reached the door but Steiner and Beatrix blocked the way out with their arms. Daggers eyes looked pleading at her two friends as her mouth formed the inaudible words-"Please."  
  
The gang jumped out of their seats as well.  
  
"Zidane?!" Vivi and his family yelped rushing to the edge of the balcony. Vivi's family knew all about zidane as vivi talked about their adventures all the time. The children immediately paid their full attention to the man on stage.  
  
"You arrogant little." Amarant trailed off looking down at zidane. Lani was nowhere to be seen.  
  
The group of adventurers were all standing by now and cheered and yelled to their long lost friend. The same thought ran through every single one of their minds, 'where were you zidane?' Zidane waved to the crowds, awaiting dagger.  
  
Steiner and Beatrix smiled and pushed the doors open allowing their queen passage through. 'Thank you both.' The queen thought to them and pushed past and down the stairwell. Her friends, eager to see their friend again, soon followed her. The lights of the torches light up the stairs making the passage down easier.  
  
"Zidane!" Dagger yelled running onto the stage to see the only love she'd ever had in her life again. The chain that the royal pendant that she wore around her neck's chain snapped suddenly and fell to the ground behind her. She turned quickly and glanced at it realizing that it wasn't worth it and turned back to zidane.  
  
She ran quickly up onto the stage and they embraced each other, not wanting to let one another go. Zidane petted her hair as she buried her face in his chest. Eiko bent down and picked up her friends pendant, cherishing it and protecting it.  
  
The rest of the group including all the vivi's and lani moved onto the stage and, stood at a distance cheering and clapping. The rest of the crowd clapped and cheered wildly, knowing that the play was over now, and that nothing could top what just happened.  
  
Zidane and Dagger shared a private conversation that only they could hear.  
  
"How did you survive...?"  
  
  
  
"I didn't have a choice"  
  
"I had to live"  
  
"I wanted to come home to you."  
  
  
  
"So...  
  
  
  
"I sang your song."  
  
The two embraced in yet another hug and zidane said to dagger- "You're not going to believe who I have with me." Zidane said to her, beckoning offstage, where kuja stood, clad in his normal outfit. "What the." Dagger mouthed to him. Her fears rising. She kept looking back and forth between zidane and kuja. "I'll explain it all later." Zidane said to her.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
So. What do you think? Do you like it? Please, please, please Review!!!!!!!!! No Flames Please! Thanks! 


	2. Thoughts

Bludgeoned Rose. Chapter 1. Thoughts.  
  
  
  
So. I hope ya'll like the prologue!! Now here comes the first chapter! Please read and review!! No Flames! Good Reviews are what keeps a story going!!! Thanx a Bunch!!!!  
  
Disclaimer: No again I don't own Final Fantasy in any form, way or shape what so ever! So stop asking. LOL.  
  
  
  
  
  
'Ah.' Thought Queen Garnet Til Alexandros as she looked out upon her balcony from the top of the tower where she and eiko had summoned Alexander to help protect Alexandria from kuja seven years ago. Everyone was in his or her's late twenties now. Eiko was fourteen years old and vivi not much older. But he grew up so fast. 'Life is perfect. Zidane finally retuned to me! But why did he bring that monster back with him?! But on a lighter note, Alexandria's reconstruction is finally finishing up! Life is so strange. Something good happens then something bad happens like Zidane bringing Kuja back with him!'  
  
Daggers hair had long since grown back since that day when she cut it in Alexandria after her adventure in Ipsen's Castle. She no longer wore her orange and white jumpsuit like outfit anymore. She favored to wear the same dress she wore yesterday, after it was washed of course.  
  
Dagger loved standing at the top of her balcony that arisen from the floor that day that Alexandria was threatened by kuja and Bahamut. From that spot she could see all of her kingdom and besides, she had so many memories that she remembered the best from that spot. Daggers bedroom was now placed inside that tower for it was grand and large inside.  
  
The bell in the clock tower rung four times, signaling for dagger to return inside to her chambers. 'I've got to get ready for the ball It starts at six. And I still need to talk to zidane.' Dagger thought to herself. She moved back into her chamber where Beatrix stood, awaiting her arrival. Beatrix was clad in the same outfit she always wore with the metal over one eye. Steiner never questioned what was under that medal, loving her all the same.  
  
"Hello my Queen." Beatrix greeted he as the young woman entered the room. Beatrix rose from the seat she was sitting in and immediately saluted to her queen. "You're looking lovely today." Garnet nodded to her in thanks and in a way of saying 'at ease' without actually saying it. The General slumped slightly.  
  
"You know beatrix." Dagger began saying to the general, plopping down in front of the mirror on her desk, in a velvet chair. "You can call me by my given name, Garnet. Or even Dagger if you wish it. It doesn't bother me at all. Actually I've grown quite fond of the name zidane gave to me, dagger."  
  
"Yes my q- Dagger." She stopped and corrected herself before the words had a chance to escape her mouth." I understand." She said quickly to avoid dagger saying something else to her. A sound from the hallway distracted both the girls.  
  
The door suddenly burst open and in rushed a figure clad all in armor. The sunlight streaming in through the open balcony shined off Steiner's armor, flashing light in Beatrix and dagger's eyes. The two squinted and began to say something to him but Steiner finally realizing what he was doing cut them off.  
  
"Oh!" Steiner gasped out, and began scurrying over to the balcony. "I am so sorry your highness, general beatrix!" Steiner pulled the drapes that were died to the wall over the archway to the balcony, stopping the sunlight. "Please forgive me?" He pleaded with the two.  
  
Dagger began laughing and soon Beatrix joined in realizing just what was so funny. "I'm not even going to start with you!" Dagger choked out between her and Beatrix's giggles.  
  
Steiner looked at them for a few moments like they were beings from another planet and he didn't understand them at all. Finally he said- "Women." And shook his head slightly.  
  
"Excuse me?" Dagger and Beatrix asked in unison, and immediately the laughing ceased. The two women looked on at Steiner with stern looks on their faces, eager to find out if he had said was what they thought he had said.  
  
"Women." Steiner began, thinking up a plausible answer to save him from the wrath of the two women. "Can't live with 'em, can't live with out 'em?" He finally asked the two of them, a nervous smile pasted on his face.  
  
"I'm sure." Dagger started, standing from her seat in front of the mirror, and moving next to her general. "Uh huh." Beatrix finished for her, as the two women pushed Steiner out of the room, angry looks on their faces, but underneath it all, they were bursting out laughing. "You need to go now." Beatrix said to him. "Dagger, needs to get ready for the ball tonight." The two broke out laughing, as Steiner wore a confused look on his face.  
  
"But- But" Steiner began to say to the two from outside the closed door. "Sweetie I need to talk to you! I need to talk to you before the ball starts!" Steiner paced back and forth outside the door, his hands held tightly together behind his back. It seemed as though something was weighing heavily on his heart, and mind. "It's very important!"  
  
"Alright honey!" Beatrix called back from inside dagger's chamber. "As a matter of fact, there's something important that I have to tell you!" Her voice was high and had a very happy note to it, while Steiner's was a sad voice. "You'll never believe it!" She called to him. A look of pure joy spread across her face, as she looked over in the corner of the room. The grandfather clock there read 4:10. "I'll meet you in one hour at the boat dock ok?"  
  
"Oh." Steiner began, looking a little frazzled. "Alright!" The knight in armor moved slowly down the hallway, his shoulders slumped.  
  
  
  
~*~  
  
Dagger was sitting back in her seat in front of the mirror. "What is it that you needed to tell Steiner?" Dagger asked her general, then immediately fell silent realizing that what she had said was unmentionably rude for a queen. 'Zidane just got back and all ready I'm talking like him again!' Dagger laughed inside her mind. Now as she pulled the golden hair tie out of her hair it was Beatrix's turn to sit down. She sat down right next to dagger in a red velvet chair.  
  
"Well.." A strange look passed over her face as if what she was about to say was waging a small battle inside her heart. "I don't know if I should tell you.." She considered it for a moment then began again. "If you promise not to tell.."  
  
"I Promise!" Dagger said quickly, eager to find out whatever it was that was on her friends mind. She dropped the silver hairbrush she was holding in her hand and turned away from examining her image in the mirror.  
  
Beatrix bit her bottom lip and considered telling her queen again, and the finally said the words- "I'm pregnant.."  
  
"Oh My God!" Dagger spat the words out, jumping up from her seat next to the mirror and throwing her arms around her friend's neck. "I'm so happy for both of you!!!" She exclaimed. Dagger finally moved back into her seat after a moment the said, in a calmer voice- "When did you find out?"  
  
"I've known for a long time." She began. "I just wasn't sure if I should tell anyone. And I thought that maybe Steiner wouldn't be happy for this child I'm carrying. And that maybe. He'd leave me." Beatrix looked down at her hands and fidgeted nervously.  
  
"Oh, Honey!" Dagger said to her. "He would never do that to you! I know Steiner. I grew up around him! He loves children!" Dagger explained it all to her friend and slowly beatrix's suspicions ceased. "So. When are you going to tell him?" She asked.  
  
"Well I wasn't planning on telling him." Beatrix began. "My stomach wasn't getting any bigger so I thought that maybe I had lost my baby, but when I looked in the mirror this morning, my stomach was larger. So now I have to tell him. I'm planning on doing it at the boat dock this evening. It's where we fell in love.." She said.  
  
"I'm so happy for you both!" Dagger said again and the two embraced in a friendly hug.  
  
~*~  
  
'I need someone to talk to about my problems.' Steiner thought to himself as he moved down the hallway in the main part of the castle to the main lobby. 'Well.I've got some time to kill. Maybe I'll go into town to see if there's anyone there that I can weigh my troubles on.' And with that Steiner stepped out of the silent castle, and into the hustle and bustle of the town.  
  
~*~  
  
Amarant Coral moved swiftly into Alexandria, through the entrance to the town. A troubled look was plastered onto his face and a troubled aura hung around him. He pushed a trail through crowds of strangers, all knowing that he was Amarant, not for being wanted in Treno, (which he wasn't anymore,) but for being one of the few, the few who stopped Necron.  
  
Amarant ignored them. 'You're beneath me, all of you.' He thought to himself, nose in the air. Amarant stepped into the pub and moved to an empty table. The pub wasn't half as loud as it was outside but it was still loud. Thoughts raced through his mind.  
  
'Again there was nothing out there! At oveilvert!' His frustrations rising, he slammed his fist in the table and a slight cracking noise could be heard. The men and women and bartenders all looked over at him, their eyes questioning what was wrong. Amarant looked down at the table and away from stray eyes.  
  
'But I know something's there! I can sense it!' He continued inside his mind. A waitress came over to his table and took his order. A few minutes later she returned and placed a beer on the table. He nodded to her and she turned and left.  
  
"Is something wrong?" A voice from behind questioned him. The voice was that of a woman's and it sounded concerned and upset.  
  
"Ah." He began talking to the woman, without turning around. "Lani.You're late." He said simply.  
  
"I know." Lani answered back, sitting next to him. "I- But he cut her off suddenly.  
  
"Where were you?" He kept questioning. "I went by myself." Lani didn't respond at first but instead took the mug of beer sitting in front of amarant, and sipped out of it. "And thanks for asking." She said sarcastically to her.  
  
"You're quite welcome." She joked then immediately got serious again. "And I'm sorry. Something came up. A Bounty to be exact. I know you thought I was done with catching all the bounties. But I found that I'm not.. I'm just not good at anything else.. I need the money." She finished, her head dropping to look at the mug she spun between her hands.  
  
"I understand." He said back to her sympathetically.  
  
"Did you find anything this time?" Lani said, her sprits immediately rising? "Let me guess, 'no?' She took another sip of the beer as she finished.  
  
"Right." He answered her question solemnly, grabbing and taking a sip of his beer. "But again, I sensed something there. You've felt it before. This time it was stronger then ever. You'd have felt this too. It felt somehow- evil." A silence fell over the two, as the rest of the world seemed to envelope them. "Something's coming. Here to our world. It won't just be in oveilvert."  
  
"I know." Lani said back. "I feel something coming too."  
  
~*~  
  
Vivi moved out of his house and sat on a chair that was placed on the porch. The sun sat high in the sky and cast an orange glow over the city and it's people. Vivi was very oddly dressed for such a warm day. He wore a black and white formal suit and black tie. His hat remained the same though.  
  
"You guys, better hurry up!" Vivi yelled, turning to look into the doorway and make his voice heard. He was speaking to his wife and children. "I wanna be there a little early! I haven't seen some of my friends in so long! Like Zidane!"  
  
Vivi began thinking to himself to pass the few moments that he had to wait for his family. 'After the play last night, we couldn't get zidane and dagger apart! The two wouldn't leave each other's side! So I think it was pretty nice of us to give the two the night to themselves. They must have known that we were spying on them for I felt that they were hiding something from someone the whole evening!' Vivi laughed out loud at the next thought. I nearly fell in that room when we were all crowded around the door to the bedroom that dagger had kept in the castle just for zidane listening to them!'  
  
"What's so funny?" Pearl asked, stepping out of the small house and facing her husband. Her five children followed her out and moved onto the road.  
  
"Pearl!" Vivi gasped, jumping up and moving to her after he saw her. "You look. So lovely." He said to her and looked into her eyes. Even though he couldn't her face was only a black cloud, he knew that there was no one else in his life for him but her.  
  
She really did look lovely. She wore a beautiful white and pink lace dress, not to tight. And her long blonde hair had fine gold and silver thread interlaced into it. She wore a small silver tiara on her head.  
  
Vivi removed his hat and placed it in front of the part of his face facing the road and the children. He leaned in and kissed her.  
  
"Ewwwww!" The kids all said in unison, knowing what was happening. The kids all turned away quickly.  
  
The two pulled away from each other with smiles on their faces. Vivi took his wife's hand and simply said, "Lets go!"  
  
~*~  
  
"We must hurry lady Freya!" Sir Fratley pleaded with Freya, tugging on the fabric on her shoulder trying to pull her out of the room that they were standing in. His eyes were focused on her, and hers into the mirror that stood in front of her.  
  
Fratley was wearing what looked like his normal outfit, but what gave it away that it wasn't, was the tinges of silver throughout the outfit. He held his Dragon Knight staff proudly in his left hand.  
  
Freya on the other hand, wore her normal everyday outfit. Because she refused to wear anything formal. And as much as Sir Fratley tried to change her mind for her to wear a formal dress, she turned him down every time, saying she thought she was ugly in anything formal.  
  
"But lady Freya!" Sir Fratley had insisted to her. "You look ever so lovely in anything that you care to don." He had spoken to her, trying to change her mind.  
  
"It won't do any good to try and change my mind my love." Freya had told him. "It's made up." She spoke to him with her back to him, but she looked at him through the mirror in front of her.  
  
So he soon gave up carrying the fight any further after a few more moments of pleading with her. Her just looked over at her anxiously, hoping that she'd change her mind in a moment.  
  
But now he just stood pleading as vivi with his wife, for her to hurry up. For he, over the years had grown quite close to all of Freya's friends and now he wanted desperately to formally meet this Zidane that everyone was always talking about.  
  
Meanwhile Freya studied her face in the mirror in front of her. She touched her cheek softly. "Coming." She said, and moved out of the room.  
  
~*~  
  
"Mother, father!" Eiko yelled to her foster parents. She looked over at the clock in the corner of the room. It read 4:45. "I wanna be there a little early! I want to talk with my friends! .And Zidane." She said the last part in a soft whisper.  
  
After all seven years eiko still hadn't lost all of her love for zidane.  
  
'Regent Cid and his wife Hilda are probably some of the best parents that I could probably ever wish for!' Eiko thought to herself for probably the five millionth time since she first came to the couple's house.  
  
She picked up a photo framed in wood of the Regent, Hilda, and herself. She ran her thumb over the part of the image of herself.  
  
'I can't help but thinking that I helped save their marriage.' She said setting the picture of her family down gently. 'Hilda had turned her husband into an ogolop because he cheated on her! The two seemed so distant when I first came to live in this house. I was their miracle." She realized quickly.  
  
Eiko had defiantly grown up since when she first met zidane and dagger in their first adventure. Her mind and way of thinking had changed, as had her body.  
  
Her purple hair had grown so long that when it was put up into a ponytail it fell down past her shoulder blades. Her horns still sat on top of her head, but they hadn't grown any larger.  
  
Even though she was extremely pretty she didn't like to show her looks off at all. She still wore look-alikes of her clothing from Maidain Sari that Hilda had made for her when she asked it of her. But buying the cloth to sew the clothing was not cheap for eiko had grown very tall in those seven years. She was now almost six feet tall.  
  
She usually hid her hair inside the collar of her shirt or the shirt itself so no one could see how long it was.  
  
She was now at the healthy young age of fourteen and a half.  
  
But eiko still thought of her real mother all the time.  
  
'Even though I couldn't dream of trading these parents for new ones, I still wish I had gotten to know my real mother.' She often thought things like this in her spare time. 'I only remember her in pangs of memory.'  
  
She started reviewing the dreams that she'd had of her mother. 'Blue Eyes.. Brown hair.. A pendant.. Magic.. And her love.' Eiko remembered her mother in a silent daydream.  
  
The magical stone that Lani had tried to steal in Maidain Sari seven years ago, now laid in a pendant that eiko had created. The pendant hung around her neck by a silver chain. When she wore it and held it, she felt more connected with her mother.  
  
'Could my mother had worn, or held, this stone at sometime in her life?' She asked herself, clutching the pendant to her chest and becoming lost in another daydream of her mother.  
  
"Eiko?" Regent Cid called to her stepping into the room she was standing in, followed by his wife.  
  
"Huh?" She answered, shaking her head and pulling herself out of a memory.  
  
"I thought you wanted to go?" He continued. "Well, we're ready."  
  
"Okay" She said and moved out of the room, but something was weighing heavily on her mind now.  
  
~*~  
  
Zidane moved out of the town's jewelry store, a smile on his face.  
  
'I can't wait to see dagger again!" He thought happily. The two had spent most of the night together and they both couldn't wait to see each other again. But he's mood seemed suddenly to change from happiness to a look of concern. 'What about kuja? How am I going to explain him to dagger and the rest of my friends? They all thought that he had died in the Iifa Tree, but they don't know that I saved him! And besides, how are they ever going to believe me that he's changed?' He thought while walking. 'I need to go somewhere to think.  
  
'I'll go down to the boat docks and ride to the castle, and then I'll just stay there near the castle dock. That's a good place to think.'  
  
~*~  
  
As the boat docked alongside the stone platform the familiar sounds of running water from the water fountain rang merrily inside his ears.  
  
Then another noise could be heard. First faintly, then slowly growing louder.  
  
Clank, Clank, Clank.  
  
Zidane knew immediately what it was.  
  
Clank, Clank, Clank.  
  
Zidane turned and ran up the few steps as the sounds got louder.  
  
CLANK, CLANK.  
  
Then Steiner moved into zidane's view when he moved away from behind the fountain.  
  
"Rusty!" Zidane yelled excitedly, running to him. "Zidane?" was steiner's answer.  
  
The two embraced for a moment then moved apart. "Hey!" Steiner said to him. "You little thief," He joked with his friend. "What are you doing in the castle? I haven't seen you for so long!"  
  
"I know!" Zidane said back to him. "How're you anyway? What happened in you're lives while I was gone?"  
  
"I got married!" Steiner said to him.  
  
"I knew you seemed different, happier." Zidane said. "I heard married life changes people." He joked.  
  
"Actually." Steiner began. "I'm not very happy right now. I need to get something off my chest."  
  
"You can tell me!" Zidane said to him.  
  
"Well. ok." He began. "I'm supposed to meet Beatrix here in a few minutes because we both have something to tell each other. Her news seems happy. But I'm afraid.. Mine isn't.. It could affect us forever.." He finished.  
  
"What is it?" Zidane asked, concerned for his friend.  
  
"I'm going to war." He finished.  
  
  
  
~*~  
  
  
  
So. How'd ya'll like it?!? Please Read and Review for me! I'm hoping to get near 15 reviews! Thanks! 


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